July 8, 2008

250 years ago
1758

War
French forces commanded by General Louis-Joseph Montcalm routed British forces led by General James Abercrombie in the Battle of Carillon on the shores of Lake Champlain in New York.

200 years ago
1808

Born on this date
Mindon Min. King of Burma, 1853-1878. Mindon and his younger brother Kanaung overthrew their half-brother Pagan in order for Mindon to take the throne, where he became known as an effective administrator who modernized the country. King Mindon died of natural causes on October 1, 1878 at the age of 70, and was succeeded on the throne by his son Thipaw.

Politics and government
Joseph Bonaparte approved the Bayonne Statute, a royal charter intended as the basis for his rule as king of Spain.

170 years ago
1838

Born on this date
Ferdinand von Zeppelin. German military officer and businessman. Count Zeppelin was a general in the German army who retired from military service at the age of 52 and worked on the development of dirigibles, which led to the founding of the Zeppelin Airship company. He died on March 8, 1917 at the age of 78.

110 years ago
1898

Born on this date
Alec Waugh. U.K. author. Mr. Waugh, the elder brother of writer Evelyn Waugh, wrote more than 50 books of fiction and non-fiction, and was best known for his novels The Loom of Youth (1917) and Island in the Sun (1955). He died on September 3, 1981 at the age of 83.

Died on this date
Soapy Smith, 37. U.S. criminal. Jefferson Randolph Smith II was a native of Georgia who was best known for his organized criminal operations in Denver and Creede, Colorado, and Skagway, Alaska. The scam that earned him his nickname was the "prize soap racket," in which he would wrap dollar bills around a few bars of soap, and entice customers to buy soap to see if they could buy soap bars with bill around them. The only winners were Mr. Smith's shills, dispersed among the crowd. He moved to Skagway (then spelled Skaguay) when the gold rush hit Alaska in 1897, and ran a fake telegraph office. Mr. Smith was killed in a shootout with vigilantes on the wharf at Juneau; he remains a legendary figure in Skagway.

80 years ago
1928

At the movies
Lights of New York, the first all-talking feature film, received its premiere screening. It was directed by Bryan Foy, and starred Helene Costello, Cullen Landis, and Eugene Pallette.

Society
According to the annual report of the Committee of Fourteen, conditions of vice in New York City were at a lower standard than had been the case 20 years earlier. The report attributed the evils to nightclubs and speakeasies, which had developed a situation worse, it was asserted, than under the old Raines law, which the committee had been organized to reform.

70 years ago
1938

Golf
Playing in heavy winds, Reg Whitcombe shot an 8-under-par 78 in the final round to win the British Open at Royal St George's Golf Club in Sandwich, England with a 15-over-par total of 295, 2 strokes ahead of Jimmy Adams. First prize money was £100.

60 years ago
1948

War
Chinese nationalist troops claimed victory in an eight-day battle with Communists in eastern Honan Province.

Defense
The United States Air Force accepted its first female recruits into a program called Women in the Air Force (WAF).

Politics and government
Socialist Party leader Willem Drees formed a new Dutch cabinet consisting mainly of Socialist and Catholic People's Party representatives.

A South Carolina federal district court forbade state Democratic Party leaders from interfering wit Negro participation in primary elections.

Economics and finance
Western allies ordered drastic energy conservation measues in their sectors of Berlin, including closing the elevated railway, and limitation of electricity consumption of homes and small factories. The British Foreign Office announced the suspension of all reparations deliveries from western Germany to the Soviet occupation zone because of the Berlin blockade.

Scandal
A court in Cullman, Alabama dismissed Christine Johnston's paternity suit against Alabama Governor James Folsom.

Agriculture
The United Kingdom quit the International Wheat Agreement after the U.S. Congress failed to ratify it.

Labour
The threat of a nationwide U.S. railroad strike ended when three railroad brotherhoods accepted a 15 1/2c hourly wage increase and contract rule changes in a White House bargaining session.

50 years ago
1958

On television today
Keep Talking, hosted by Monty Hall, on CBS

Mike Nichols and Elaine May were guests for the premiere broadcast of this game show. Mr. Hall was later replaced by Carl Reiner.

Diplomacy
U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower arrived in Ottawa to begin a three-day visit to Canada for talks which led to the founding of a Canada-U.S. joint committee on defense.

Ending a 15-day visit to the United States, Afghan Prime Minister Prince Sardar Mohammed Daud appealed for increased investment in Afghanistan by "all our friends," including the U.S.A. and U.S.S.R.

Greek Foreign Minister Evangelos Averoff-Tositsas met in Brioni with U.A.R. Foreign Minister Mahmoud Fawzi and Yugoslavian Foreign Minister Milentije Popovic for talks on the Middle East and Cyprus.

U.K. Prime Minister Harold Macmillan agreed to the inclusion of Cypriot leaders in proposed British-Greek-Turkish talks on a Cyprus settlement.

Politics and government
Dauti Yamba and other African deputies to the Federal Parliament in Salisbury asked that Nyasaland be allowed to secede from the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.

Business
New York Yankees' manager Casey Stengel and center fielder Mickey Mantle gave testimony as expert witnesses to the U.S. Senate Anti-Trust and Monopoly Subcommittee, regarding anti-trust laws as applied to baseball.





Baseball
Major League All-Star Game @ Memorial Stadium, Baltimore
American League 4 National League 3

Pinch hitter Gil McDougald of the New York Yankees singled home Frank Malzone of the Boston Red Sox with the winning run with 1 out in the bottom of the 6th inning as the Al edged the NL before 48,829 fans.





40 years ago
1968

Hit parade
#1 single in Japan (Oricon Singles Chart): Emerald no Densetsu--The Tempters

#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): Delilah--Tom Jones (5th week at #1)

Labour
The Chrysler wildcat strike began in Detroit.

Football
CFL
Pre-season
Winnipeg (0-1) 14 @ Montreal (1-0) 33

30 years ago
1978

Hit parade
#1 single in Italy (Hit Parade Italia): Tu--Umberto Tozzi (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Switzerland: Rivers of Babylon--Boney M. (13th week at #1)

#1 single in Ireland: You're the One that I Want--John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in the U.K. (BMRB): You're the One that I Want--John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John (4th week at #1)

Rhodesia's Top 10 (Lyons Maid)
1 Rivers of Babylon--Boney M. (2nd week at #1)
2 Take a Chance on Me--ABBA
3 Stayin' Alive--Bee Gees
4 I Can't Stand the Rain--Eruption
5 Figaro--The Brotherhood of Man
6 Make Love to Me--Kelly Marie
7 Substitute--Clout
8 Man to Man--Hot Koko
9 Don't it Make My Brown Eyes Blue--Crystal Gayle
10 (Your Love has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher--Rita Coolidge

#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): Shadow Dancing--Andy Gibb (4th week at #1)

Netherlands Top 10 (De Nederlandse Top 40)
1 You're the One that I Want--John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John (2nd week at #1)
2 Rivers of Babylon/Brown Girl in the Ring--Boney M.
3 Miss You--The Rolling Stones
4 Whole Lotta Rosie--AC/DC
5 If You Can't Give Me Love--Suzi Quatro
6 Dance Across the Floor--Jimmy "Bo" Horne
7 Golden Years of Rock 'n Roll--Long Tall Ernie and the Shakers
8 Piece of the Rock--Mother's Finest
9 Hold You Back--Status Quo
10 Copacabana (At the Copa)--Barry Manilow

Singles entering the chart were Oh Darling by Theo Diepenbrock (#24); Still the Same by Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band (#25); Latin Dance by Massada (#29); and She was Too Young by the Cats (#34).

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Shadow Dancing--Andy Gibb (5th week at #1)
2 Baker Street--Gerry Rafferty
3 It's a Heartache--Bonnie Tyler
4 Miss You--The Rolling Stones
5 Take a Chance on Me--ABBA
6 Use Ta Be My Girl--The O'Jays
7 Still the Same--Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band
8 Dance with Me--Peter Brown with Betty Wright
9 You Belong to Me--Carly Simon
10 The Groove Line--Heatwave

Singles entering the chart were Hopelessly Devoted to You by Olivia Newton-John (#52); Kiss You All Over by Exile (#78); You Needed Me by Anne Murray (#84); Break it to Them Gently by Burton Cummings (#91); Talking in Your Sleep by Crystal Gayle (#94); Ain't Nothing Gonna Keep Me from You by Teri DeSario (#95); and Shaker Song by Spyro Gyra (#98). Hopelessly Devoted to You was from the movie Grease (1978).

Canada's top 10 (RPM)
1 It's a Heartache--Bonnie Tyler
2 Shadow Dancing--Andy Gibb
3 Baker Street--Gerry Rafferty
4 Take a Chance on Me--ABBA
5 Two Out of Three Ain't Bad--Meat Loaf
6 You're the One that I Want--John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John
7 You Belong to Me--Carly Simon
8 Too Much, Too Little, Too Late--Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams
9 Love is Like Oxygen--Sweet
10 Dance with Me--Peter Brown with Betty Wright

Singles entering the chart were Three Times a Lady by the Commodores (#69); Prove it All Night by Bruce Springsteen (#87); On the Wrong Track by Kevin Lamb (#88); Macho Man by the Village People (#92); Georgia on My Mind by Willie Nelson (#94); I Need to Know by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (#96); You Don't Love Me Anymore by Eddie Rabbitt (#98); Midnight Light by LeBlanc & Carr (#99); and Hot Child in the City by Nick Gilder (#100).

Protest
Riots, demonstrations, and strikes broke out in the Basque provinces of Spain after police fired on secessionist demonstrators in the bull ring in Pamplona.

20 years ago
1988

Hit parade
#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Im Nin'Alu--Ofra Haza (4th week at #1)

Politics and government
Newfoundland became the eighth Canadian province to ratify the Meech Lake constitutional accord; approval was later rescinded after the province's government changed a year later.

Scandal
U.S. District of Columbia Court Judge Gerhard Gesell ruled that Colonel Oliver North, a former member of the National Security Council who had worked in the White House, must stand trial on September 20 to face charges related to the sale of weapons to Iran and the subsequent transfer of the proceeds to anti-Sandanista Contras in Nicaragua.

Economics and finance
The United States Labor Department reported that the unemployment rate had edged downward in June to 5.2%, the lowest level since May 1974.

Disasters
The Island Express train travelling from Bangalore to Kanyakumari, India derailed on the Peruman bridge and fell into Ashtamudi Lake, killing 105 passengers and injuring over 200 more.

10 years ago
1998

Football
CFL
Winnipeg (0-2) 13 @ Hamilton (1-1) 33